Background: The Pensacola, Fla., neighborhood where Pamela Reynolds lived with her father (Google Maps). Inset: Pamela Reynolds (Escambia County Sheriff”s Office).
A woman in Florida was taken into custody for elder abuse after bringing her father to the hospital, where he was discovered in a condition that involved human waste and maggots, according to police reports.
When questioned at the hospital, Pamela Reynolds, 54, admitted to police that she was responsible for the care of her elderly father, who was receiving treatment for multiple severe health issues. An arrest report viewed by Law&Crime indicated that Reynolds’ father, whose age was not disclosed, faced numerous health challenges including diabetes and heart failure.
Hospital staff who were treating the man informed police that he was enduring necrosis, was coated in feces, and was “severely malnourished.” Reynolds confessed to police that she hadn’t moved her father from his chair in two months.
The arrest report mentioned that by the time police arrived, Reynolds’ father had received medical care for his injuries and was cleaned. Observing him in the intensive care unit, the responding officer remarked, “I could smell decaying flesh” emanating from the alleged victim. The man was “unable to move himself,” and the officer observed several injuries as the crime scene technicians took photographs of him. One injury was purportedly “the size of a softball with black and yellow tissue, pus, and fluids seeping out.”
Medical personnel who attended to the man reported that his right hip injury had become necrotic; when brought in, the injury was infested with “maggots and feces.”
When police questioned Reynolds, she told them that she regularly bathed her father with “soap and water” and gave him food and medicine while in her care. She allegedly said that she had not taken her father to the doctor since January and had not moved him from the recliner since early June “because of transportation issues.” Reynolds allegedly told police that “she did not see or was not aware” of the injuries on her father.
Reynolds told police that after a failed attempt to bring her father to the hospital in April, she finally called 911 on July 31 when she noticed he had a “high heart rate.”
According to the report, police were able to communicate with the older man, who appeared to be “cognitively aware” of why he was in the hospital. He was able to tell police that “he had been lying in the chair for several months.”
Reynolds, who reportedly cried during her interview with police, was arrested on Aug. 4 on one count of neglect of an elderly or disabled adult with great bodily harm. She was booked into the Escambia County Jail, where she is being held on $10,000 bond. Her arraignment is scheduled for Aug. 22.
